2025 Conference Program

Keynote Speakers:

Yvan Beaussant, MD, MSc
Instructor, Supportive Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (USA)
Wednesday, October 29 Plenary Presentation on: Integrating Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies into Oncology: A Path to Resilience and Meaning

Dr. Yvan Beaussant (MD, MSc, Harvard Medical School, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute) is a palliative care physician and investigator leading the Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy (PAT) Program at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He studies the effects and mechanisms of psilocybin-, MDMA-, and ketamine-assisted therapy on depression, pain, and existential distress in patients with serious illness. Dr. Beaussant’s research also focuses on identifying and addressing barriers to the equitable implementation of PAT in serious illness care, with a particular commitment to expanding access for diverse and underserved populations. He completed a Master’s in Ethics at Paris Descartes University and graduated from the Certificate in Psychedelic Therapies and Research at the California Institute of Integral Studies. His work includes integrating psychotherapy and music programming into psychedelic therapy models and advocating for regulatory reform to improve accessibility to these treatments. Dr. Beaussant is passionate about mentoring the next generation of leaders in palliative care and psychedelic research and has presented and published widely in the field. He is involved in international collaborations aimed at advancing psychedelic therapies for serious illness care. https://psychedelics.dana-farber.org/

Kerry Bone
Professor, R and D, MediHerb (Australia)
Tuesday, October 28 Plenary Presentation on: The Use of Medicinal Mushrooms During Cancer Therapy: A Promising Complementary Approach

Professor Kerry Bone is an industry leader and innovation driver, directing the research program at MediHerb, Australia’s leading professional herbal brand. He is co-author of more than 40 scientific papers on herbal research, including original research and systematic reviews. Over four decades, Kerry has published several hundred articles on herbal therapy in professional journals. He has written or co-written seven popular textbooks on herbal medicine, including the second edition of Principles and Practice of Phytotherapy with Simon Mills, which was awarded the 2013 James A. Duke Excellence in Botanical Literature Award by the American Botanical Council. His seventh book on Functional Herbal Therapy was published in 2021. He still maintains a busy herbal practice in Toowoomba where he has been in continuous service for more than 40 years.

Joke (Yoka) Bradt, PhD, MT-BC
Professor, Creative Arts Therapies, Drexel University (USA)
Monday, October 27 Plenary Presentation on: Music Therapy for Symptom Management in Oncology Care

Dr. Joke Bradt, PhD, MT-BC is Professor and Program Director of the PhD in Creative Arts Therapies program in the College of Nursing and Health Professions at Drexel University (Philadelphia) and a board-certified music therapist.  Her federally funded research is focused on the development and testing of music therapy interventions for chronic pain and symptom management. She is the lead author of a  Cochrane systematic review on music interventions in oncology care and one on dance/movement therapy for people with cancer.  She is the former Editor-in-Chief of the Nordic Journal of Music Therapy. She is a founding Co-Director of the International Music Therapy Clinical Trials Network (IMTCTnet) and she leads the Music4Pain Network, an NIH-funded multidisciplinary research network aimed at advancing mechanistic understanding of music-based interventions for pain.

Judson Brewer, MD, PhD
Professor, Director of Research and Innovation, Mindfulness Center, Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences, Brown University School of Public Health, Department of Psychiatry, The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University (USA)
Tuesday, October 28 Keynote Presentation on: Mindfulness and imaging. Mechanisms of Mindfulness: from Anxiety to unhealthy habits, how mindfulness leverages our brain for the better.

An American psychiatrist, neuroscientist and author. He studies the neural mechanisms of mindfulness using standard and real-time fMRI, and has translated research findings into programs to treat addictions. Brewer founded MindSciences, Inc. (now known as DrJud), an app-based digital therapeutic treatment program for anxiety, overeating, and smoking. He is director of research and innovation at Brown University‘s Mindfulness Center and associate professor in behavioral and social sciences in the Brown School of Public Health, and in psychiatry at Brown’s Warren Alpert Medical School.

Linda Carlson, PhD., R. Psych, FABMR, FSBM, FMLI
Enbridge Research Chair in Psychosocial Oncology; Professor, Department of Oncology, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary; Director, Alberta Complementary Therapy and Integrative Oncology (ACTION) Centre; Past-President, Society for Integrative Oncology; Department of Psychosocial Oncology, Arthur Child Comprehensive Cancer Centre (Canada)
Tuesday, October 28 Plenary Presentation on: Mindfulness-Based Cancer Recovery

Dr. Linda Carlson holds the Enbridge Research Chair in Psychosocial Oncology and is a Full Professor in the Department of Oncology, Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary. She directs the Alberta Complementary Therapy and Integrative Oncology (ACTION) Centre and has provided clinical care at Cancer Care Alberta since 1997. A globally recognized leader in mindfulness-based cancer recovery and integrative oncology, Dr. Carlson has published over 250 peer-reviewed works, co-authored influential books, and received numerous prestigious awards, including the 2023 Dr. Rogers Prize in Complementary and Alternative Medicine. She also serves as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Psychosocial Oncology Research and Practice, is Past-President of the Society for Integrative Oncology and Treasurer for the International Society for Contemplative Research.

Sian Cotton, PhD
Professor and Director, Osher Center for Integrative Health at the University of Cincinnati, Turner Farm Endowed Chair, Department of Family and Community Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati; Chair, Board of Directors, Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine and Health (USA)
Wednesday, October 29 Plenary Presentation on: Consortium and SIO Join Forces to Overcome Barriers and Establish Integrative Medicine as Standard Practice

Sian Cotton, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist, founding director of the Osher Center for Integrative Health and the Turner Farm Foundation Chair at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.  A Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine and Division Director for Integrative Medicine, Dr. Cotton has an active research lab with ongoing clinical studies focusing primarily on mindfulness-based interventions and integrative medicine practice-based research. She is currently the Chair of the Board of Directors for the Academic Consortium of Integrative Medicine and Health, a group of over 85 leading academic health centers and served as 1 of 8 Congress Co-Presidents for the 2^nd World Congress on Integrative Medicine in Rome September 2023.  Dr. Cotton is often invited to speak with community organizations and businesses, healthcare audiences, and academics about mind-body medicine for stress reduction, and preventive and wellness-based approaches to healthcare.

Christina Dieli-Conwright, PhD, MPH, FACSM, CSCS
Associate Professor, Population Sciences, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (USA)
Wednesday, October 29 Keynote Presentation on: Using an “Exercise is Medicine” Approach among Underrepresented Minorities and Vulnerable Populations of Cancer Survivors: Challenging the Research Gap

Christina M. Dieli-Conwright is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School and in the Division of Population Sciences of the Department of Medical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. She holds a secondary appointment as Associate Professor of Nutrition in the Department of Nutrition at the T.H. Chan Harvard School of Public Health. Her research is focused on examining mechanisms by which post-diagnosis exercise can impact cancer prognosis with a specific focus on biomarkers of metabolic dysregulation related to tumor growth, inflammation, gut microbiome, and body composition. She derives randomized controlled trials to test whether various types of prescriptive exercise improve cancer outcomes in individuals diagnosed with cancer, across the lifespan from adolescents and young adults to older adults. Additionally, Dr. Dieli-Conwright examines cardiometabolic diseases in underrepresented minority cancer survivors and utilizes lifestyle interventions to reduce the onset or exacerbation of comorbidities in said population. Dr. Dieli-Conwright has a history of funding from the National Cancer Institute, American Cancer Society, Department of Defense, Patient- Centered Outcomes Research Institute, American Institute for Cancer Research, Pfizer, and foundation grants. Prior to joining DFCI in 2020, she was the Director of the Integrative Center for Oncology Research in Exercise and an Assistant Professor of Biokinesiology and Medicine at the University of Southern California (USC). She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the City of Hope National Medical Center after earning her PhD in Biokinesiology from USC.

Hal Gunn, MD
CEO, Qu Biologics Inc. (Canada)
Tuesday, October 28 Dr. Rogers Keynote Speaker: Innate immune modulation and plasticity are increasing becoming recognized as essential in human health. AI is revealing the hundreds of pathways that are dysregulated as disease develops. These developments both highlight the limitations of therapies that force a single pathway in one direction, and support a holistic model designed to restore immune plasticity, modulation, and balance.

Hal Gunn, MD, founder and CEO of Qu Biologics, has focused his professional life on supporting the body’s innate immune capacity to restore health. Dr. Gunn co-founded InspireHealth, Canada’s foremost integrative cancer treatment centres, to support the health of people undergoing cancer treatment. Under Dr. Gunn’s leadership, InspireHealth grew to become a leader in supportive oncology with three centers, funded by the Provincial government. Dr. Gunn was awarded the Dr. Roger’s Prize for vision, leadership, and integrity in the field of Integrative Medicine. Dr. Gunn discovered Site Specific Immunomodulation (SSI) and founded Qu Biologics to develop the SSI platform. Dr. Gunn is Qu’s CEO and Chair of Qu’s Board of Directors.  Dr. Gunn obtained his Doctorate of Medicine from the University of British Columbia (UBC) and remains a Clinical Assistant Professor at UBC’s School of Medicine.

Daniel Hall, PhD
Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School; Associate Director of Utilization and Evaluation Research, Health Promotion and Resiliency Intervention Research Center; Staff Psychologist, MGH Behavioral Medicine and MGH Center for Psychiatric Oncology & Behavioral Sciences, Massachusetts General Hospital (USA)
Tuesday, October 28 Plenary Presentation on: Fear of cancer recurrence management: Evidence-based care and opportunities for integrative oncology

Daniel L. Hall, PhD is a licensed clinical health psychologist and an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School. He is a staff psychologist in the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Psychiatry, where he delivers group and individual therapy and supervises psychology fellows. His area of research focuses on mindbody and behavioral interventions for addressing (a) fear of recurrence and (b) insomnia among adults affected by cancer and chronic health conditions. He is on faculty in the Health Promotion and Resiliency Intervention Research Center, Behavioral Medicine Program, Cancer Center, and Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine. You can follow Dr. Hall online @DanielHallPhD.

Helene Langevin, MD
Director, National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, National Institutes of Health (USA)
Monday, October 27 Keynote Presentation on: Expressive Art and Cancer

Helene M. Langevin, M.D., is director of the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Prior to NIH, Dr. Langevin was the director of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, jointly based at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, and a professor-in-residence of medicine at Harvard Medical School. She previously served as professor of neurological sciences at the University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine, Burlington, Vermont. Dr. Langevin received an M.D. degree from McGill University in Montreal, followed by a postdoctoral research fellowship in neurochemistry at the MRC Neurochemical Pharmacology Unit in Cambridge, England, and a residency in internal medicine and fellowship in endocrinology and metabolism at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.

Vitaly Napadow, PhD, LAc
Director of Pain Research, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital (USA)
Wednesday, October 29 Plenary Presentation on: FMRI and Psychedelic Research

Vitaly Napadow is Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, as well as Anesthesiology, at Harvard Medical School. He is also the Director of the Scott Schoen and Nancy Adams Discovery Center for Chronic Pain Recovery at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital and the Center for Integrative Pain Neuroimaging (CiPNI) at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital. He has been a pain neuroimaging researcher for more than 20 years. Somatosensory, cognitive, and affective factors all influence the malleable experience of chronic pain, and Dr. Napadow’s Lab has applied human functional and structural neuroimaging to localize and suggest mechanisms by which different brain circuitries modulate pain perception. Dr. Napadow’s neuroimaging research also aims to better understand how non-pharmacological therapies, from acupuncture and transcutaneous neuromodulation to cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness meditation training, ameliorate aversive perceptual states such as pain. Dr. Napadow has more than 240 publications in leading peer-reviewed scientific journals, is past-President of the Society for Acupuncture Research, and served on the board of the US Association for the Study of Pain (USASP) and numerous conference, journal, and NIH review panels.

Claire Oppert
Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, Faculty of Medicine of Tours, University of La Sorbonne-Paris, Cello Professor Musica Mundi School (Belgium), music therapist Maison Médicale Jeanne Garnier (Paris), Palliative Care Unit Hôpital Rives de Seine, Puteaux (France)
Monday, October 27 Plenary Presentation on: The Schubert Treatment : the impact of live music on pain, dementia, and end of life, global perspective and clinical studies

Claire Oppert is a concert cellist, born in Paris and trained at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. A winner of international competitions in France, Italy, Germany, and South Africa, she currently teaches cello at the Musica Mundi School in Waterloo, Belgium, and oversees the training of the young artists in residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel. She has recorded several CDs and performs worldwide, with concerts across Europe, the United States, Canada, and Asia. In addition to her musical career, Claire Oppert holds a degree in art therapy from the Faculty of Medicine of Tours and a philosophy degree from the Sorbonne. For 28 years, she has worked with young peaople with severe autism in medical-educational institutes, as well as with patients suffering from dementia in nursing homes and those receiving end-of-life care in palliative units. A recognized researcher and speaker, she has published and presented numerous clinical studies on the impact of music in palliative care, focusing on patients, caregivers, and families at many international conferences around the world. Her therapeutic protocol, *Le Pansement Schubert*, has become a reference in palliative care in France and Belgium, significantly reducing pain and anxiety in end-of-life patients during painful treatments . Trainer and researcher, she is also the author of *Le Pansement Schubert* (Éd. Denoël, 2020), which has been translated into multiple languages and awarded the Musicians’ Literary Prize.

Channing Paller, MD
Director of Oncology, Oncology, Johns Hopkins Clinical Research Network (USA)
Tuesday, October 28 Plenary Presentation on: Common Dietary supplements and Cancer. Innovative Trials of Natural Products
Wednesday, October 29 Plenary Presentation on: Consortium and SIO Join Forces to Overcome Barriers and Establish Integrative Medicine as Standard Practice

Dr. Paller is an Associate Professor and Clinician-Scientist focused on translating basic scientific findings into treatments that improve clinical outcomes and reduce toxicities for men with prostate cancer. She has established a growing portfolio of investigator-initiated phase I clinical trials of natural products including Pcur-101 (plumbagin), pomegranate, mistletoe, and muscadine grape skin as well as later phase trials of Vitamin-C combined with docetaxel and separately olaparib/Vitamin C, olaparib/abiraterone in rare genetic mutations, ODM-201 combined with docetaxel (now FDA approved), PI3KI and docetaxel, and the TGF-beta receptor inhibitor galunisertib combined with enzalutamide.  She serves as national or Johns Hopkins PI on all of those trials. She is President Elect and serves on the board and the executive committee of the Society for Integrative Oncology (SIO), is a member of the NCI PDQ Cancer Complementary Alternative Medicine Editorial Board, PCCTC DOD executive committee (as well as germline and trial design subgroups), and Innovation in Cancer Informatics Reviewer. Her expertise in trial initiation spans protocol development, IND development, navigation of FDA requirements, and IRB approvals, as well as the recruiting, management and analysis for early phase trials. She is also co-I on several genetically targeted therapeutic trials at all stages and national coPI on the PROMISE trial, providing 5000 men with free germline screening and matching them to trials, which is currently making an effort to increase participation by African American men. She serves as Director of Prostate Cancer Clinical Research at Hopkins, manages the DOD Prostate Cancer Consortium Hopkins site grant, and hosts a prostate cancer biomarker collection protocol from which she has published data which will be important in terms of biospecimen collection and collaboration with her colleagues. She has worked with the VA leadership to establish an executive committee for Prostate Research Outcomes and Findings via Optimized Unified National Data in Veterans (PROFOUND-VET). She is the Director of Oncology for the Johns Hopkins Clinical Research Network.  She is President Elect for SIO and will serve as President for SIO starting in October 2025.

Samantha Simmons, MPH
Chief Executive Officer , Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine & Health (USA)
Wednesday, October 29 Plenary Presentation on: Consortium and SIO Join Forces to Overcome Barriers and Establish Integrative Medicine as Standard Practice

Samantha Simmons, MPH is the CEO of the Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine & Health, responsible for the oversight and execution of all operations and strategy of the Academic Consortium and fulfilling the mission of advancing integrative health in academic health centers and health systems. Ms. Simmons is an accomplished leader in the field of integrative medicine with an extensive background in many facets of promoting transformation in healthcare through collaborative initiatives and strategic partnerships. She is passionate about health policy advocacy and driving utilization of models of whole person care for underserved populations and is the P.I. of the Whole Health in the States (WHITS) Initiative, a program geared towards these goals. Ms. Simmons has dedicated her entire career to removing barriers to healthcare that is interprofessional and focused on a person’s whole health and wellbeing. Ms. Simmons serves on numerous committees, boards and workgroups in partnership with organizations working towards the goal of healthcare that looks like health and not just the absence of illness and disease.

Peter Wayne, PhD
Associate Professor, Medicine, Harvard Medical School Osher Center for Integrative Health (USA)
Tuesday, October 28 Plenary Presentation on: Taichi/Qigong and Cancer

Peter Wayne, PhD, is a researcher, practitioner, and instructor of mind-body and integrative therapies. He is the Bernard Osher Associate Professor of Medicine in the Field of Complementary and Integrative Medical Therapies, Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Director for the Osher Center for Integrative Health, jointly based HMS and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The primary focus of Dr. Wayne’s research is evaluating how complementary and integrative therapies clinically impact aging and chronic health conditions, including managing cancer related symptoms, and understanding the physiological and psychological mechanisms underlying observed therapeutic effects. He has served as a principal or co-investigator on more than 35 NIH-funded studies and has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed articles. Peter also has more than 45 years of training experience in Tai Chi and Qigong and is an internationally recognized teacher of these practices. 

Stefan Willich, MPH, MBA
Professor, Institute für Social Medicine, Epidemiology and Health Economics, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Germany)
Monday, October 27 Plenary Presentation on: Music in medicine – experience, evidence and perspectives

Stefan Willich studied medicine in Berlin, Munich and New York. Master of Public Health in 1990, Harvard University, USA, and Master of Business Administration in 1995, INSEAD, France. Board certification and habilitation in internal medicine. From 1993 to 1995 Visiting Professor of Epidemiology, University Greifswald, and Visiting Professor of Medicine, Harvard University, USA. Since 1995 Professor and Director of the Institute for Social Medicine, Epidemiology and Health Economics, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. In addition, 2005 to 2012 Chairman of the CharitéCenter 1 for Prevention, Health and Human Sciences. From 2012 to 2014 President of the Conservatory of Music Hanns Eisler Berlin. Member of many academic committees and societies including Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology (FESC) and American College of Cardiology (FACC). From 2010 to 2019 President of the European Society of Integrative Medicine (ESIM). Since 2022 President of the new International Society for Arts and Medicine (ISfAM). Founder and Music Director of the World Doctors Orchestra. Main research areas cardiovascular disease, prevention, health economics, integrative medicine, and arts and medicine, over 700 publications.

Yufei Yang
Academic Leader, Oncology Department, Xiyuan Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences (China)
Tuesday, October 28 Plenary Presentation on: TCM and Cancer – Evidence-based Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine Practice in Cancer Care: Perspective from China

Professor Yufei Yang is a leading expert in oncology at the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences and serves as the Academic Leader of Oncology at Xiyuan Hospital. She also heads the Neijing Teaching and Research Office at Xiyuan Hospital. Recognized as a Renowned Capital TCM Physician and a First-Class “Qihuang Scholar,” Professor Yang was selected as one of the first cohort of Outstanding Clinical Talents by the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine. She is also a mentor for the Seventh Batch of Senior TCM Experts’ Academic Experience Inheritance Program. With extensive research contributions, Professor Yang has led 26 national and provincial research projects, successfully completing 23, including two under the 13th Five-Year National Key R&D Program. She has published 212 research articles, including 157 in core journals and SCI-indexed publications, with a cumulative impact factor of 81. Additionally, she has authored 28 books on specialized and popular science topics, published by the People’s Medical Publishing House. Her work has earned nine national and provincial awards, including the National Science and Technology Progress Award.

Anna Yusim, MD, MSc
Clinical Assistant Professor, Yale Department of Psychiatry, Chief Medical Officer, Conscious Health (USA)
Wednesday, October 29 Plenary Presentation on: Psychedelics in Cancer Care: Bridging Science, Spirituality & Compassion

Dr. Anna Yusim is an internationally-recognized, award-winning, Board-Certified, Stanford- and Yale-educated Psychiatrist & Executive Coach with a Private Practice in New York City, Connecticut, California and Florida. With clients including Forbes 500 CEOs, Olympic athletes, A-list celebrities, and the Chairs of academic departments at top universities, Dr. Anna Yusim helps influential people achieve greater impact, purpose, and joy in their life and work. Dr. Yusim is the best-selling author of Fulfilled: How the Science of Spirituality Can Help You Live a Happier, More Meaningful Life. As a Clinical Assistant Professor at Yale Medical School, Dr. Yusim is presently working to create a Mental Health & Spirituality Program / Center at Yale, which will be a bridge between the Yale Medical School and Yale Divinity School. Dr. Yusim is the Chief Medical Officer of Conscious Health, a holistic mental health treatment center based in California that bridges ancient psychospiritual wisdom with state-of-the-art, evidence-based mental health interventions like ketamine, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and other treatment modalities. She is the Medical Lead for SuperMind, a mental health start-up based in Miami that utilizes personal coaching, binaural beat meditation technology and an EEG-based biofeedback systems to create targeted, precision mental health therapy for depression, anxiety and PTSD. She is also on the Board of numerous other enterprises in the mental health space, including Being Health, Mental Health Television Network, Plaey and Pause + Purpose.

Program:

Monday, October 27, 2025

Tuesday, October 28, 2025

Wednesday, October 29, 2025